Supreme Subculture L.L 2016 Systems and Models
PROJECT QUESTION Popular streetwear brand, Supreme, has been on streetwear fanatics’ minds and in their closets for a while now. But what is it about Supreme that makes people go to extremes to get their hands on their products? I’ve seen this phenomenon before, most notably for tech giant, Apple. Yet never before has this frenzy replicated itself for a clothing brand. When referring to the brand, influencer Emily Oberg said, “Supreme is the most resellable brand on the planet right now.” My research hopes to uncover an answer; is it product quality, lack of storefronts, brand exclusivity, or product notoriety? What is reeling in masses of consumers? Tyler the Creator once said, “It is a little club, a secret society,” when asked about the brand. Many speak on Supreme's exclusivity as a primary factor to their success. And so I set out to see just what motivates a Supreme shopper to camp out, and in some cases pay a large markup to the retail price, in order to be a part of the so called ‘secret society’. I wanted to see who Supreme was reaching, how they were buying, just how much they were willing to pay, and most importantly, why?
RESEARCH Originally known for their skate culture, Supreme opened its first store doors in 1994 in Manhattan New, York. The store quickly established itself as the home of the New York skate culture. Since their initial opening, Supreme has grown to establish themselves internationally boasting nine currently operating stores, with one set to open in Paris this year. It is important to note that only two of these stores are located in North America, those being in Soho, NYC and Los Angeles, California. In a world of fast fashion, Supreme’s artistic approach to their store, and commitment to exclusivity has set them apart from competitors. I was inspired to conduct this experiment after watching the documentary Complex did on the Supreme resell market titled, 'Sold Out: The Underground Economy of Supreme Resellers'. This documentary went to a Supreme season launch in New York City interviewing those waiting in line, particularly focusing on resellers and their opinion on the budding market. From their short documentary, I was then inspired to look further into the matter and research myself how such a large market has been created from underneath the skate brand.
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HYPOTHESIS Based on what I’ve seen, I believe that Supreme has gained its notoriety through direct product marketing and branding. I can infer, based on research into their launches, that their demographic is aimed towards teens and young adults, people ranging from sixteen and into their mid twenties, mostly males. Knowing what I know about that particular demographic, I think that rarity has become their largest asset. A reseller was captured saying, “...when something sells well, they never make it again. That creates the hype.” I think that it is this particular hype that has allowed for Supreme to overtake the streetwear market by storm.
EXPERIMENT DETAILS Materials ● computer to do research on ● a survey maker (such as Google Forms) ● personal products to sell Procedure 1. I looked at videos of launches. Paying close attention to demographics, and taking quotes from people. This was important because it helped me get a good visualization of the group I would be observing, and later helped quantify my results. 2. I originally tried to take count of how many people were there, and how many were male/female but this became increasingly difficult and so I just took general observation notes. This served as a way to support the data I would later collect through my survey. 3. I collected quotes to support my research, paying attention to both consumers and resellers. 4. I created a survey. I based this survey off of six questions that I felt would give me the most insight into the consumers, and ultimately lead me to my answer. I made sure to keep these questions unbiased through my language, and broad spectrum of answers. This survey covered the following: a. The reason behind Supreme’s appeal for that particular person i. Brand reputation ii. Product quality iii. Exclusivity iv. Aesthetic design of product b. The way in which the consumer is most likely to purchase the product i. Pay someone to wait in line for you ii. Buy resell iii. Buy at online launch iv. Wait in line for launch c. The reason behind the way the person is most likely to purchase the product i. It is cost effective ii. You are willing to pay a higher price for the product you want iii. You don’t mind not getting a product from the current season iv. There isn’t a store in your area d. How much the person is willing to pay for Supreme products i. Retail price ii. More than retail price iii. Below retail price e. How old that particular person is i. Below 15 ii. 15 20
iii. 20 25 iv. 25 and above f. What gender that person most closely identifies with i. Female ii. Male iii. Other 5. I distributed this survey both to people I knew, and to random consumers threw popular blogging site, Tumblr. I felt this was the best way to reach a large unbiased audience. 6. Once I had my data, I analyzed it to see if it matched up with my conclusion. 7. I collected all this data across three days for the best results and grouped my data into graphs at the end of those three days. 8. In order to have a better grasp on the resale market I decided to calculate the percent markup on three products. Two from the last Supreme release, and one recurring. 9. I logged on to website Grailed, known for being a resell market. 10. I placed my own Supreme hoodie for sale, in order to have direct interaction with consumers. 11. I then found around 6 different listings for each item and averaged the price for each item using that information. 12. With the average price for my three items in hand, I then went online to research their retail price. 13. Using the retail price and average resale price, I calculated the percent markup on each of the three products.
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(LL.MTBQ.2016) Above is a screengrab of my Tumblr blog where I reached out to my followers who were Supreme consumers in order to get responses for my survey.
(LL.SLG.2016) Above is a listing of a Supreme hoodie I sold.
DATA/ANALYSIS Supreme Morrissey T Retail: $44 Average price resell: $152 Percent markup: 245% Supreme Box Logo Hoodie Retail: $148 Average price resell: $496 Percent markup: 167% Supreme Duffle Bag Retail: $89 Average price resell: $225 Percent markup: 138% I also decided to conduct an anonymous survey. I crafted six questions listing out everything from motivations, to age range. I sent out this survey to both friends who are Supreme consumers and random consumers I found on Tumblr. In total I had fortythree people respond to my survey. I think it is worth mentioning that those who responded to my survey are most likely to have favorable opinions of the brand, while an outsider would most likely just see the clothes one dimensionally. The results supported my initial hypothesis, but also added to it. They are pictured below.
What makes Supreme appealing to you? Probably one of the most, if not the most, important question of my survey. My hypothesis inferred that the exclusivity of the brand has been its most appealing factor to consumers. This manipulation of marketing has lead to extreme lines, markups, and overall hype surrounding the brand. I assumed my collected data would support this. Exclusivity was the driving factor appealing to consumers, but brand reputation, and aesthetic design of product were close behind. Not expecting this, I continued examining the
rest of my data in search of a possible answer. I kept this question unbiased through selective language and by giving a range of possible answers. I also made it clear that only one answer could be chosen, eliminating the chance of ambiguity.
My next question focused on each consumer’s particular motivation behind the purchase of Supreme products. I kept this portion of the survey unbiased by doing my best to keep the choices stated simply, and by crafting answers that covered a series of different popular possible answers to the question. The results of the question are pictured above. Of the fortythree people who responded to the survey, over half of them responded that they were most likely to purchase Supreme products on the resale market. I asked this question, because my initial question and hypothesis relied heavily on the existence of a resale market. I wanted to ensure that I had support from the existence of such a market, and that it was as large as I initially thought.
This next graph represents consumer’s answers to how much they’re willing to pay for Supreme’s products. I initially predicted that most consumers would most likely be willing to pay a premium, based on my conclusion of the large scale and popularity of the resale market. My data supported this conclusion as over fifty percent of my test group indicated that they were willing to pay more than the initial retail price. This result leads me to believe that Supreme has resonated with their desired consumers, rarely do you see a consumer willing to pay up to double the retail price of a product as is the case here.
The graph below represents the answer to a question seeking age specific information. Initially I inferred that Supreme’s demographics were marketed towards and reached consumers between the ages of sixteen and twentyfive. I based my survey off of this hypothesis yet managed to keep it unbiased by creating larger age ranges for people outside of this range. Interestingly enough, I noticed that more people were below the age of fifteen than over the age of twentyfive. I would have guessed that it would have been the opposite. What this tells me is that Supreme’s consumers are most likely to be younger.
In total, 43 people completed my survey. Of those 43 people, 6 were female, and 37 were male. This is represented through the graph above. What kept these results unbiased was that I made an open post on Tumblr, with the link to my survey, and only the hashtag Supreme attached. Meaning, I did not know beforehand who would be answering my survey. Resulting in answers truly based off of willingly participants and that are representative of actual consumers. The results of this particular portion of the survey are interesting because it suggests that more men
are becoming style conscious. Fashion has long been viewed as a heavily female dominated sector. My research suggest and supports the blurring of gender norms, which has become popular in the last decade or so. Although Supreme as a brand is fairly gender neutral, it is clear that male support has largely contributed to the brand’s success. It is also important to note that when I was doing research on the store launches, I noticed the lines were also heavily male dominated.
CONCLUSIONS What was the point? I spent the last nine days researching the success behind Supreme and this is what I’ve come up with. To the executives at Supreme, and to any brand looking to grow to amass a cult following, listen up. Know your demographics. Based on my research and overall consciousness of the world we live in, men are becoming increasingly more styleconscious. Men’s fashion weeks are growing, more and more men are investing in beauty care, as a brand I’d focus on further reaching out to this growing market. My research also suggests that teens and young adults are increasingly more willing to overpay for products they deem reputable and exclusive. This group of consumers is easily swayed into dropping big bucks under the impression that they’re buying into the brand. When asked for an opinion on Supreme one teen was quick to say, “ I think the brand is so fucking powerful that it’s making me buy a fucking crowbar.” Take advantage of this by continuing to drop small quantities of product and focusing on only having a select number of locales. As soon as Supreme begins to hit the mainstream market, many of it’s consumers will move on to the next little thing. No one wants something the guy to their left has. How can Supreme as a company make more money? Simple. Raise your prices. At a recent launch a reseller was heard saying, “You can call us hypebeasts, you can calls us lames, you can call us fuckboys, you can call us all type of shit. But you know what you can’t call us? Broke, my condo’s $4200 a month.” This reseller is making a living on your products, and a pretty decent one at that. Supreme products are often resold at a markup of over 200%, it wouldn’t hurt to charge $60 for a tshirt over $48. Overall as company Supreme’s obviously doing something right. I have yet to encounter a brand that’s been able to stay relevant for over twenty yearsthat’s longer than I’ve been alive. It’s even more rare to see a brand accumulate such a large cult following, and create a market of it’s own the way Supreme has.
Works Cited DELEON, JIAN. "The 10 Types Of People That Shop At Supreme." Complex. Complex, 17 July 2012. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. Oberg, Emily. "Experience the Madness at the Last Supreme Drop of 2015." YouTube. YouTube, 11 Dec. 2015. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. Oberg, Emily. "Here's What Happened at the Supreme Fall/Winter 2015 Drop." YouTube. YouTube, 21 Aug. 2015. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. Oberg, Emily. "'Sold Out: The Underground Economy of Supreme Resellers': FullLength." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Dec. 2015. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. Williams, Alex. "Guerrilla Fashion: The Story of Supreme." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Nov. 2012. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.